Abstract
This paper examines the cultural construction of artificial intelligence (AI) as purely logical. Set against the frameworks of rationality, modernity, and technology’s mythmaking, it critiques AI’s portrayal as an objective intelligence, reinforcing Enlightenment ideals while obscuring the material influences on its development. Employing media theory, science and technology studies (STS), and posthumanist critiques, the paper explores how AI’s spectacle fosters perceptions of machine rationality, despite its ties to human biases and capitalist motives. Drawing upon Guy Debord’s theory of the spectacle, this paper contends that the notion of AI as mere logic embodies a medieval epistemology in which knowledge is mediated through images rather than direct material engagement. During the Middle Ages, transcendent elements—such as divine authority and metaphysical truth—significantly influenced epistemic life. AI operates in a comparable manner, providing objective intelligence that transcends human fallibility while serving the interests of technocapitalist power. This digital transcendence reverberates with medieval structures of control, where epistemic authority was concentrated within the hands of a select few. Certain theorists designate this transformation as “technofeudalism;” however, this paper argues that feudalism has not genuinely resumed. Instead, technofeudalism arises as a novel ideology—an interpretation that conceals the persistence of capitalism while modifying perceptions of labor and digital authority. The spectacle of AI endorses this ideology, not by reinstating feudal relationships but by establishing new epistemic hierarchies masked as rationality and progress. This study rigorously examines the role of AI in reinforcing these ideological constructs.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2025 Special Focus—From Democratic Aesthetics to Digital Culture
KEYWORDS
Digital Media, Capitalism, Epistemology, Marxism
